3 weeks ago, Joshua’s POV

 

It’s been two days since I’ve seen or talked to Margo. I kind of miss her. We don’t really know each other but I’d like to get to know her more. She’s shy but is very nice.

 

“Hey Josh, we’re going to go out and get more food for the fridge. Want to come?” Woozi stood in my doorway, holding a pad of paper and pen.

 

“Oh, no. I can’t. I’d go but I have an essay due tomorrow.”


“Have you not finished it?”


“I’ve just got the conclusion left. Honestly I was hoping that I would have finished yesterday.”


He nodded his head. “Alright, well…is there anything you want us to get?”


“You know me, I’m not really picky.”

 

“Ok, see you in a bit. Good luck with the essay.” He looked back down at the list for a moment then looked back at me.

 

“What’s wrong?”


“Nothing is really wrong but….” There was that tone and expression that was about to lay it all on the table. “I’m worried about you I guess. You don’t get out much anymore.”


I laughed slightly at the comment. But I knew that he was right. The only times I ever left the dorm were to go practice my singing at the studio on campus, to go to school, or on the occasional events we went to all together.

 

“I get out in the world Woozi, but you’re most likely right.” I looked out the window to see the sun shining. It looked warm outside.

 

“Of course I’m right.” He came into the room and sat down on my bed. “Joshua, the last time you went out was when we went to downtown LA and we met Margo. Other than that you really haven’t been out.”


Turning back to him, I sighed. Senior year in high school more than most people would probably think.

 

“At least go out once you’ve finished that essay. Why not call Margo and see what she’s up to?”


“I could but I don’t want to bother her.”


“Non-sense.” He took out his phone and handed it to me. “Just call her on my phone, she’ll respond.”


It seemed like he was playing me for a lesser person with Margo compared to him. Then again, Korean is a language where you have to know what you’re saying, to whom you’re saying it to, and how you say it.

 

Never the less, I called her on Woozi’s phone and sure enough she answered.

 

“Hello?”


“Hey Margo, this is Joshua.” There was a bit of a paused before she began to talk again.

 

“Hi Joshua. How are you?”


“I’m fine. Just working on an essay. How about you?” And it was at that exact moment that Woozi took his phone and put it on speaker so that he could hear her too.

 

“I’m good.”


Well that was short response. I didn’t really know what to say next but Woozi decided that he would help me.

 

“Margo, are you doing anything today?”


“Woozi? Hi, uh no I’m not. Why?”

 

At smile appeared on his face. I knew that he was planning on doing something that may or may not embarrass me. As soon as he opened his mouth I knew what he was going to ask.

 

“Well I’m going to be out with The8 and Hoshi for the day. Joshua has an essay to finish, which will take him only 10 minutes, so he’ll be alone for the rest of the day. Could you possible come hangout with him?”


There was another silent pause before she spoke. But that pause was just long enough so that I could glare at him. In return he gave me an innocent pout and raised his shoulders.

 

“That’s a bit of a weird thing to request. Considering that Joshua could have asked me himself but…Sure. I’d love to hangout. What time should I come over?”


“I can pick you up actually.” I didn’t really want her to come over to the dorm anyway. It’s pretty dull here.

 

“Ok, what time?”


“Say…20 mintes?”

“Alright Joshua. I’ll see you soon.” Then she hung up and I handed Woozi his phone back.

 

“I feel better knowing that you won’t be alone and that you’ll be out of the dorm now. You really stay inside too much.” With that, he walked out of my room to grab Hoshi and The8.

 

I groaned and put my head on the desk. This was going to be a bit awkward considering what Woozi just set me up for.

 

Margo was right. I could have just asked her myself but Woozi had other plans. Now I had to roll with it. Then again, it could be really fun. I don’t know what to expect. W

 

 

 

***

 

 

20 minutes later I find myself at her door and not trying to ring the doorbell. So I stood there for about 10 minutes, waiting to see if I was going to do anything.

 

But, I didn’t have to ring the doorbell because soon enough Margo opened the door. She smiled at me and I guess I must have not done anything because I then noticed a small frown form on her face.

“Hi.” I said quickly and bowed at 90 degrees.


That got her to laugh. “Morning Joshua.”


I rubbed the back of my neck, that was embarrassing. I have never in my whole life just ignored someone.

 

“Morning Margo.”


“So, where are we going?”

“I didn’t have anything in mind. I thought that we could see where the wind takes us.”


She blushed a bit and nodded. I could tell she was hoping I hadn’t seen the change in color of her cheeks but I did. It was cute.

 

“Alright then. Well…let’s drive around and see if anything pokes any interest to us.”


“Why not? Let’s go.” I held out my hand for her to take and opened the car door for her. “M’ lady.”

“Why thank you kind sir.” She got in the car with a smile.

 

When I got in, she was looking at her phone. I glanced at it as I started the car but I didn’t ask what she was doing. We were just getting to know each other and I didn’t want to be rude in any way.

 

As we drove she started humming a song while looking out the window. I recognized it immediately. My mom had played it for me when I was growing up, meaning when I had still lived in the house.

 

“naega eoreuni doemyeon dallajil jul aratdeon

modeun geot geu modeun geotdeuri

jakku nareul goerophyeo meoriman deo apeuge

naega eoreuni doemyeon”

 

She looked at me with a surprised expression but kept singing. I tried not to smile but in the end I failed and we were both singing.

 

“You like that song too?”


“I’ve heard it a lot when I was younger. Whenever I was upset about growing up or having to go to school, anything of that genre, she would always sing this to me. It made me feel better I guess.”

 

I could tell she was looking at me as though I was someone completely different from what she had expected. Then again, I didn’t often show people what I’m really like when we first meet.

 

I glanced at her, “Where did you hear the song?”


“Oh, my mom always sang it. I don’t really know why.”

 

I understood that. At the same time though, I couldn’t help but wonder how much we were really keeping from each other. I knew that I was keeping part of myself hidden because the truth of who I am is….let’s just say it would terrify even the bravest person.

 

“Oh! Let’s stop here!” She was quite enthusiastic as she looked out the window. I pulled over and she practically jumped out of the car.

 

When I got out after her, I saw her dancing to a song that some street performers were playing.

 

“You dance??” I said as I walked up to her.

 

“Of course. I’m not a boring person.” She kept dancing and I was very impressed.

 

About 10 minuets later she looked at me and grabbed my hands. “Come on. Don’t be so stiff. Dance.” She pulled me into the middle of the group.

 

“I don’t know if I remember how to dance to this or not.” I was a bit shy about it. Sure I danced but Hoshi, Dino, or The8 were the ones who trained me to dance.

 

“Please?” She was pouting up at me and I couldn’t help but smile at her. It was adorable.

 

“Oh alright. But you’ll have to teach me again.”

 

“Fair enough Joshua.” So she began to dance again, watching me closely to see if I was able to catch on.

 

Just Right has a dance where you need to be pretty coordinated to do it. I had learned the dance but failed to practice it for a good amount of time since.  Though it seemed that I had retained what I learned even though it had been 3 months.

 

“Wow, you’re good.” She said after the song was over.

 

“Thanks.” I was slightly out of breath. “You’re not bad yourself.”

 

“I’m guessing you haven’t done that dance in awhile.”


I nodded. It was funny, the last time I danced to that was with The8 and he was not an easy teacher. I mean that in the sense that he was tough and didn’t take bull when it came to dancing. Though by nature he is a very sweet guy.

 

“You ready to get back in the car?”


“Sure.” We got in and headed off again. There wasn’t much to see in downtown LA, both of us had seen it all too many times to actually be able to count.

 

Once again we sat in silence but this time it wasn’t that awkward. It didn’t feel like we couldn’t talk without being judged.

 

I kept glancing over at her occasionally. Margo was a nice girl who really had more to her than what someone first sees. She loves to dance it seems and singing is a great hobby for her. I liked that about her. She knew how to have fun.

 

“Hey, why don’t we stop here?”


I glanced to where she was pointing and nodded. After all, I could try and repay her for being with me even though I didn’t ask her. Woozi was going to get what he deserved when I get back to the dorm.

 

“What is this place?” She said as the car stopped.

 

“Wow…Creepy looking. But let’s go!” I got out of the car quickly and dragged her along.

 

“You really want to go into an amusement park haunted house?”


“Of course. It’s scary, fun, and who knows,” I whispered “we might even see a ghost.”


The look on her face said it all. She was scared and I couldn’t help but laugh at her. I grabbed her hand and lead her inside. “You’ll be fine. You’ve got me.”

 

As soon as we walked in there was a jump scar. She jumped behind me and held onto my arm tightly. I looked at her and laughed again. She seemed to get scared easily.

 

“You ok?”


“Sure, let’s say that for now. Let’s just keep going.”


“Alright, just try not to jump out of your skin.” I joked and kept going with her right behind me.

 

The haunted house itself really wasn’t’ that scary but it was fun to see how Margo was reacting. This was my idea of fun I guess. Getting scared and going through it with a friend.

 

As we walked, Margo started to let go of my arm slowly and begin to walk next to me. She seemed to be fine. Then there was the last jump scar as we got to the end of the haunted house.

 

“See? You made it. And you didn’t jump out of your skin.”


“Alright Joshua, I admit, that was pretty fun after the first few minutes.” She was smiling again which was a good sign.

 

Just as we walked past a curtain, a person jumped out in a costume (which was actually pretty freaky on its own if you saw it in broad daylight) and cried out. Margo screamed so loudly I could have sworn she broke our eardrums.

 

I looked at her and saw the look on her face. She stood there so still that I picked her up and ran outside with her in my arms.

 

As soon as we got out I ran to a bench and set her down gently. I moved the hair out of her face and shook her shoulder carefully.

 

“Margo. Are you ok? Margo?”


She looked up at me and a giant smile lit up her face. Then she started laughing, I didn’t understand.

 

“Of course I’m ok. That was awesome. Though I think the last jump scar was a bit much for the whole thing.”


I looked at her for a minute, not knowing what to say or do. I sat down on the ground and I must have had a somehow funny expression on my face because Margo placed her hand on my shoulder and laughed.

 

“Don’t worry Joshua. I’m fine but right now I hope you’re ok.”


Looking up at her I chuckled a bit. She was really something but I enjoyed her company either way.

 

“I’m good. I was worried but it seems like everything is fine now.”


She nodded then we both heard a weird kind of hollow sound. It was the kind that your stomach makes when you’re really hungry.

 

We looked at each other then began a childish conversation. “Wow, was that really you?”


“No way, that was you Joshua.”


“Couldn’t be, I’m not THAT hungry.”


Then her stomach grumbled again. She wrapped her arms around her stomach.

 

“Wow you really must he hungry. Did you eat earlier today?”


“No.”


“Then lets go get some food.” I stood up and held out my hand. She took it and we walked over to the food stands.

 

“So what do you want? I’ll pay for you.”

 

“Oh….” She walked around for a bit before stopping at a stand that had funnel cake. “Wanna share one?”


“Sure. Sounds good.” I paid for the food and we sat down to eat it.

 

She handed me a napkin and a fork. “It’s messy.”


“Thanks.” I sat down next to her and we began to eat.

 

We sat in silence again but there was quite a lot to see there. Children were running around with their parents chasing after them.

 

Margo and I smiled at them. It had been awhile since either of us had actually been able to be that carefree. Now that we were older, there was more to focus on and life got duller by the hour.

 

“So,” She began while we ate “What do you like to do for fun? I mean you seem to like just doing whatever but specifically.”


“Well…actually I haven’t really thought about that. I mean, growing up I loved to go out with my friends. It’s funny, we used to go out later at night, say around 7 or 8, and try to find dancing competitions, singing competitions, that kind of thing.”

 

“And you’re parents let you do this?” She looked at me with an expression that I wasn’t always used to seeing on people’s faces.

 

“Eh….no. But we never told them. They trusted us to keep ourselves safe.”


“Wow, you have better parents than I do. My mom was, still is, very protective of me. But anyway, keep going on about the competitions and sneaking out.”


“We would almost always win but it was something fun for us because we liked going into back allies to try and find these places. I remember, there was one place that we loved to go all the time. They called their competition Battle of the Voices, not a great title, but that one was the most fun.”


I looked at her for a second to see if she still wanted to hear the story. She made a gesture that told me she wanted to keep hearing about my childhood.

 

“Basically that battle was an open mic of sorts. All the teams who wanted to compete would come to the center of the room, the runner would give us the topic or category of the songs we could pull from and we would go from there. Any team could start the battle but if you sang the wrong song or you cheated your way out of singing a song, you were out for the count.”


“Well you guys must have been really good to win most of your competitions.”


I nodded. “So what about you? What do you do for fun?”

 

She thought for a moment then turned to face me a bit more. “Well I like sing, I listen to a lot of music, you’d be surprised how much I have on my phone, uh I play volleyball, I don’t know. There’s a lot I do that fun.”


“Do you draw?”


“Yeah. I love to draw.”


“Show me your drawings sometime. I’d love to see them.”


“Sure thing.”


“Since you love singing so much, you should join Seungkwan, Woozi, Jeonghan, DK, and I in our next singing competition.”


“You guys still go out and do that?!” She looked so shocked to hear me say that. I laughed at her reaction.

 

“Oh come on. You don’t seriously think I’m that stiff do you? Of course we still go out and do it. We mostly go out do competitions and battles after big events, test, exams, and special occasions, that kind of thing. You could say that its our way of relaxing.”


She thought for a moment on my offer to join us. Honestly, the first time I heard her sing I knew she was talented. I hoped that she would join because it would be nice to have a real female voice instead of us always singing the female parts.


“Alright Joshua, you’ve got a deal. On one condition.”


“That is?”


“I would like for you to come over so that I can draw you. Consider it a trade off. I join you guys, you get to be my model for drawing.”


I held out my hand. “You’ve got it.” She shook my hand gently with a smile.

 

I then realized that we should keep going. I wanted to go on one last stop before we had to go back to downtown LA.

 

“Let’s try to make one or two more stops before we have to go back downtown. You up for it?” I said as I got up from the table.


“Sure. I’m up for a few more stops. I’m enjoying this thoroughly.” She stood up as well so that our faces were only a foot apart from each others.

 

“Wonderful.” I smiled at her then grabbed the plate and threw it away.


As we got into the car I was starting to wonder where else we could go. Not a lot of places are very fun or interesting. But as I started the car, an idea came to me. I would take Margo to see what a competition/battle for singing in back allies really looked like.


We took off in the direction where I knew we would find at the very least one place that had what I was looking for. It was one of the biggest places to hold the battle but it was very underrated in my opinion. All I could think of as we drove there was that I hope she liked it. If not, well things could go for the worst.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m back! What’s up everyone, I’m sorry that I haven’t updated the story in awhile but I was looking at colleges and I also had to do homework. Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter and are looking forward to the next one.

 

Thank you guys so much for reading this. I know I don’t have a lot of subscribers but for the ones that are here, thank you. Seventeen is one of my favorite groups out there and writing about them is very fun.

 

So I hope this story is good and that you guys are enjoying it. If you guys have any chapter ideas for this story feel free to tell me. I really want to make sure you guys are enjoying this, I haven’t written for a long time so I may not be up to par.

 

Also, I should mention that pretty soon I will have to stop writing for this story so much. School is getting busier, but I promise that I will update the story at least once during the week. And I mean that is the bare minimum. 



As always, happy reading!